Lydia gave the cashier a nod as she was handed the change for the mouse ears Stiles had just bought her. "Twenty-five dollars for a stupid pair of mouse ears, can you believe that?" she grumbled and turned toward her boyfriend. He reacted with a playful look of hurt, to which she couldn't help but let a small smile creep across her face. Stiles lightly placed the Christmas themed accessory atop her straightened strawberry blonde hair. He stepped back to admire his work.
"They're not stupid," he retorted, "They're adorable. And even more so on you."
"They're ridiculous." she tried again.
"I'll settle for cheesy."
Lydia scoffed and rolled her eyes, teasingly hitting him on the arm, earning a goofy smirk from the boy. "Oh my god. You are too much."
Stiles swooped in and gave her a quick peck on the lips before she could register what was happening.
"I know," he grinned, grabbing her hand, "now, come on! The lines are going to get really long if we stay here any longer. I wanna go on Star Tours!"
He didn't even have to look at her to know she was about to protest, so he turned and gave her the best puppy face he could muster. She audibly groaned, but reluctantly nodded, nevertheless.
"Fine," she huffed, "but only if we can go on the teacups after."
"Deal," Stiles replied excitedly, reveling in his triumph. He had just convinced the girl of his dreams to go on a star wars themed ride at Disneyland, he deserved to be in the hall in fame, at the least.
Lydia had never been a big fan of roller coaster or jerky rides, thanks to her parents. The first time they had gone to Disneyland they had forgotten to buckle her seatbelt on the Indiana Jones ride, her dad's favorite, and she had bounced around the damn car like it was a trampling. Long story short, she had ended up with a major concussion and was on bed rest for a good three weeks. She would, however, admit that she had actually quite enjoyed the star tours ride. Of course, she would never tell Stiles that.
"So, what'd you think?" he asked ecstatically, unable to stand still.
"It was okay." she shrugged.
Stiles' mouth hung open in annoyance, and he did that thing where he would stick his neck out too far. That had always made Lydia uncomfortable. Your neck is supposed to remain level with your body.
"Just okay? Come on, Lyds, you gotta give me more than that!"
"Alright, fine. It was sorta fun."
"You're lying. You liked it a lot."
"Stiles..."
"I can tell! You're doing that thing where you purse your lips, it's a dead give away."
"I- what? I don't do that!"
"Yes, you do. You're doing it again."
"I don't do that, Stiles."
"Oh, but you do."
Stiles began to bounce on the balls of his feet with a grin, like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, stretched across his face. He knew he had Lydia backed into a corner with nothing to do but admit defeat.
"Okay, it was really fun. Happy now?"
"Very. I'd be even happier if I could get a Chewbacca backpack though."
Lydia frowned at him.
"You already have one."
"I know, but it's really old and dusty and I want something to remember this trip by."
"I am not walking around Disneyland with you if you have a Chewbacca hanging on your back, Stiles."
Stiles stuck his neck out again.
"Stop doing that!" she exclaimed
"Doing what?" he asked, confusion spreading across his face.
"That thing with your neck," she replied, "If it gets stuck like that I will break up with you."
He smirked at her and left his neck in the same position. Lydia rolled her eyes at him and smiled.
"Don't test me."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
Lydia headed out of Tomorrowland, looking over her shoulder and raising her eyebrows at him, daring him to follow her. Stiles raced after the stubborn girl and caught up with her easily, tangling his long fingers with hers.
"So, about that Chewbacca backpack…"
"No."
By the time lunch approached, Stiles and Lydia were starving. The two had decided to eat lunch at the Mary Poppins themed restaurant so they could enjoy the view of the castle, which was decorated for Christmas. Lydia bought a salad and left Stiles inside, as he was taking forever to decide what to order, and found them a table near the gate. She had barely taken a bite of her food when Stiles sat down across from her, a giant piece of cake on his plate.
"Stiles!" she mumbled, swallowing her food. "What are you, five? You know you can't eat that and not expect to crash!"
"What are you, my babysitter?" he retorted sarcastically, shoveling a large piece of chocolate moose into his mouth.
"Apparently so."
He looked up from his food, momentarily, to shrug at her.
"If you don't eat something healthier first, I won't have sex with you for a week." Lydia threatened.
Stiles stopped dead in his tracks, the fork inches from his mouth. He looked at Lydia, then down to his cake, then back to Lydia.
"Oh my god, are you actually considering that?"
"It's really good cake, Lyds!" he rambled. "Food and sex are my favorite two things! That's like asking me to choose between Chandler and Joey!"
"What about Ross?" she challenged.
"Well, I would have included Ross in there but that would have required you asking me to choose between three options. You only gave me two."
"Okay. Food, Sex, or Star Wars?"
"Oh, you are a cruel one, Lydia Martin," he complained.
Lydia gave him and tight-lipped smile and raised her eyebrows as if to say "I know."
"Alright," he thought aloud. "I would say food, sex, then Star Wars. But if we're talking sex with you, I would go with sex, food, Star Wars."
"Good answer, babe." she gave him an assuring nod.
"Thank God."
"Now, go get something else. I'll keep your cake safe while you're gone."
Stiles huffed and reluctantly stood, heading toward the cafe.
"If you eat my cake, I won't have sex with you for a week!"
"Yes, you will." said replied nonchalantly.
"Damnit. I hate when you're right. That may be true, but I'll be a real pain in the ass for the rest of the trip."
"Oh, like you haven't been already?"
"You suck."
"I love you, too. Now go."
Somehow, Lydia had ended up agreeing to stand in line for an hour to go on space mountain, a ride she didn't even want to go on, to begin with. She didn't like fast roller coasters, especially ones that take place in pitch black. Lydia was used to knowing things so, when she didn't have a good feel on her surroundings, it was nerve-wracking. She felt herself nervously tapping her foot. Stiles, of course, had noticed.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he murmured in her ear softly.
"We've been standing in line for so long. What's so great about this ride that makes everyone want to stand here for this long?"
"Well," Stiles began, knowing that he should approach carefully as he knew she was lying through her teeth. "It's only been forty minutes, we still have another twenty or so to go. Besides, we stood in line for small world for way longer, so do you wanna tell me what's really going on or would you like a minute to come up with another excuse as to why you don't want to go on this ride?"
Lydia sighed heavily and leaned into her boyfriend as he wrapped an arm around her waist soothingly.
"I don't like rollercoasters, Stiles," she confessed.
"Then why did you agree to come?"
"Because you really wanted to bring me here and I didn't want to let you down."
Stiles looked down at her, their eyes connecting immediately. Lydia could see the love practically pouring out of his honey brown eyes.
"Lyds, I don't want you to ever feel like you're gonna let me down. If you don't want to go on this, we don't have to, okay? I don't want to stress you out."
"No, I want to! This is the perfect time to get over a silly fear."
Stiles kissed her head softly. She let her eyes flutter shut as the feeling of warmth engulfed her entire body.
"What are you afraid of?" he wondered aloud.
"Well, I could fall out and die, for starters."
"To die would be an awfully big adventure."
Lydia pulled out of his embrace slightly so she could whack his chest.
"Don't quote peter pan to me!" she laughed.
"Why not?" he grinned. "We're in Disneyland!"
Suddenly the line began to move and the two had to scramble to catch up.
"You're such a twat."
"I love you, too."
Lydia had evidently survived the trip in space mountain. Unfortunately, she had made the mistake of grasping Stiles' hand way too tight during the ride. There was no way in hell he was ever going to stop talking about the moment when Lydia Martin had held his hand for comfort, so tight to the point that his fingers had become numb. Nevertheless, they had gotten quite a cute picture and ended up buying it. Stiles insisted that it be their Christmas card that year, despite the comments they would receive from their friends on what stage this left their relationship in.
Lydia, on the other hand, wanted it to be a picture of them in front of the castle. They had settled on a picture of Main Street with them holding a cup of hot chocolate.
"This one's cute." she smiled.
"Any picture of you is cute," Stiles replied smugly.
"Wow, that was almost as cheesy as your joke about the cheesy mouse ears!"
"Hey, that was a good pun."
"It was." she agreed, standing on her tippy toes to place a light kiss on his lips.
"Wow! She kissed me without standing under the mistletoe!" Stiles said to no one in particular.
"I kiss you all the time, asshat."
"I know. I just wanted to hear you say that."
Lydia laughed loudly, a sound Stiles wanted to hear every second of the day, and grabbed his hand as she jogged down main street, pulling him behind her. She stopped abruptly near the statue of Walt Disney and turned to him.
"You know," she began, "I think we need to come up with a tradition that we do every time we come here."
"I agree." he smiled. "Anything particular in mind?"
"I think," Lydia placed her hands around his neck and leaned into him. "that we should do one of those cheesy kisses from the movies under the castle walkway. You know, where you pick me up and spin me around."
"I never pictured you as such a romantic, Lydia Martin. It's a nice surprise."
"Oh, I have so many more surprises to show you, Stiles Stilinski."
"Really?" he raised his eyebrows
Lydia nodded, a small smile playing on her lips. "All in due time."
Stiles followed her as she led the way to castle walkway. They stopped and turned to each other.
"Think you can handle this?" she teased.
"Probably not."
Suddenly, Lydia felt his strong arms around her waist and her feet lift off the ground. She subconsciously wrapped her arms around his neck again and smiled down at him, noticing small flecks in his eyes that she never had before. Her hand found his cheek as their lips connected. They moved in unison, clinging to each other like they're the others lifeline, which they are. They pulled away at the same time, out of breath, and their foreheads rested against each other.
"You know," Stiles breathed after a moment. "I almost expected to hear cheering."
"This isn't the movies, Stiles." she laughed softly
"Almost seems like it. The dorky boy finally gets the most beautiful girl in school after he's been trying to for ten years. Not to mention the fact that our best friends are supernatural creatures."
"Hmm." she hummed compliantly. "You had me after seven years. Just didn't know it."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
Stiles and Lydia continued their tradition for another four years, always at Christmas time. However, they missed the fifth and sixth year due to… complications.
The next time they returned was with their twin daughters, Ariel and Allison. Of course, they had to make some adjustments to the tradition, considering they had to keep an eye on the three-year-olds. They had decided to forgo the spinning and just stick to a simple kiss as they couldn't allow the girls leashes to get tangled. Lydia insisted they were child safety tethers, but they both knew it was a leash. The leashes were worn like backpacks and, predictably, they were Chewbacca backpacks. Stiles had finally convinced his wife.